Me: Phew... I guess it's just like people say: Give them a little finger and they'll take the whole hand.
Black: What did you expect? People wouldn't just act like they own you or something?
Novice paused in pulling Black's cheeks as he got a message from someone. It was from Swift, and Novice smirked at the contents, "Enjoy this while you can Black, because your fun just ended."
"Oh yeah, what're you gonna do, meow meow MEEEOOOWWW!?" Black said, screaming the last part in surprise and confusion. "What the-? Why can't I talk now!?" the black feline digimon exclaimed in annoyance.
"Swift sent me an update to fix that ring. You're not spouting anymore about our sex life." Novice covered his mouth as he realized what he just blurted out.
Black started laughing at the human. "That one's on you, dumbass." This action was followed by the cat getting hit on the head with what looked like a wooden stick, with the words "Viisauden Keppi(Stick of Wisdom)" carved into it.
"Next time, it's a roach feast for you." Novice threatened as he remembered the last time he did that. Let's just say Black hates that kind of fish with a passion now.
"...Can we please move on," Sora said, once again feeling threatened alongside Mimi. Especially if Black was telling the truth about Novice knowing "body alteration" magic. Didn't take a genious to figure out what he could do to the girls with that kind of power.
"Oh, right. Sorry about that," Novice said as he snapped his fingers, making the hover chair disappear and took his seat on the easy chair. "And this chapter's reader iiiiiiis," Novice said, a drumroll being heard as the book was once again floating in the air. Before it flew to, "Hikariiii!"
The said girl was surprised at hearing she gets to read it this time.
"So then, if there aren't any questions we could move on," Novice said as he waited patiently for anyone to raise their hands. It looked like Mimi was a little hesitant, but ultimately decided not to ask whatever it was she had in mind. "Well then, Hikari. If you would."
With that, Hikari opened the book from the appropriate chapter.
Flashing Claws! Gatomon!
Just as the title said, the title card showed a silhouette of Gatomon with her claws ready.
"...Are you making us read by the order of which of us digimon is involved," Gatomon asked with a raised eyebrow. That question surprised everyone.
"Come to think of it, Taichi red the chapter where my other evolved," Agumon commented.
"And I red the one where Gabumon became Garurumon," Yamato added in. With that fact being stated, all eyes were on the Overseer.
"...Wow, I thought it would take you guys two more chapters to figure that out," Novice said with a smile. "Well, you are correct. I planned that each chapter be red by whichever human who's partner is involved."
The Children felt mildly insulted by this guy not having faith in their intelligence. But they decided not to get on his case.
Instead, they decided to focus on the chapter, seeing as they were interested. Especially Gatomon, even though she wasn't going to admit it outloud.
After the rather stressful night when they'd been attacked by Seadramon, the group was once more on their way to Infinity Mountain. Though it was clear the previous night's sleep wasn't as well rested as they'd like.
"Yeah, can't blame them," Taichi admitted, "Even though some of us did sleep like logs."
That remark earned some chuckles from everyone else.
Salamon yawned loudly from her spot on Nora's head. "I didn't sleep so well last night…"
"Tell me about it," Patamon yawned as well. "Hopefully nights like that don't become a habit."
"Right, and the sky's green," Gomamon commented, earning small laughs out of everyone.
"Please don't tempt the universe you two," Blake sighed.
That earned more laughs.
"Well...look on the bright side. Now we got two Digimon who can evolve to...uh…" Ruby started, then paused as she realized she had no idea what those stages were called.
"They're called the Adult Level," Tentomon supplied helpfully.
"Right, now we got two Adult Digimon on our team!" she said, giving him a grateful nod.
"Tentomon was useful on most things when we were still adjusting to the digital world," Koshiro commented, giving his partner a grateful look.
"What do you mean by 'on most things'," Tentomon asked, clearly offended.
"Does it go above Adult Level?" Weiss asked, rather curious about it.
"Oh, yes." Everyone said in unison.
"It does, beyond Adult is the Perfect Level, and there are rumors that there's a level even above that." Tentomon added.
"...Right, we didn't know about Ultimate at that time yet," Sora commented, shivering a little at the memory of VenomMyotismon.
"Let's...hope we don't run into any of those soon," Jaune gulped. Adult Digimon were scary enough. He wasn't in a hurry to run into, and with their luck, fight, a Digimon that was at a level titled 'Perfect' of all names.
"That depends on his definition of 'anytime soon'," Mimi commented, with Palmon nodding in agreement.
"What do you mean," Daisuke asked in curiosity.
"I think it will be in the later chapters," Palmon guessed, before Novice could say anything.
"That plant is smart," Novice thought, with an impressed look.
"And now we're almost definitely going to run into one of those," Ren deadpanned, causing the blonde to blanche when he realized what he did.
"Ooohh! This is new!" Nora said, getting everyone's attention as she looked at her digivice with raised eyebrows.
"What is it?" Gyro asked, it had to be either extremely mundane it went around to awesome, or just straight up awesome if Nora reacted like that.
"...Which just makes me more worried," Gatomon commented, having a few mental images of what someone like Nora could find interesting.
"That radar that didn't have anything anymore has a black dot on it now." she said, before the others all pulled out their own digivices and went to the same screen, showing that there was indeed a black dot on it now, moving quickly.
"...What're their digivice's tracking," Hikari asked Novice out of curiosity.
"Keep reading, you'll figure it out," the Overseer responded with a knowing smile.
"So… judging by this thing, that black dot should be… over there." Pierce said as he looked west, just in time to see something small, and black, move quickly across the sky.
"Is that a...," Koshiro said, letting the question hang.
"Looks like it," Takeru commented with an apprehensive look.
"What the heck was that?" Veemon wondered, tilting his head in confusion.
"That's what I want to know," Veemon said from his comfy seat on the couch.
"Dunno, but I get the feeling we'll find out," Gyro frowned.
"Why am I not surprised?" Weiss sighed. "With our luck, it'll lead us straight into another life or death situation at the hands of a violent Digimon...no offense to all Digimon in present company," she said, adding the last part quickly.
"Ummm..." Miyako sounded out unsurely.
"Yes." The seven seniors and their digimon responded in unison, knowing what the junior wanted to ask.
"None taken," all the Digimon waved off.
"Well, no use worrying too much. We might as well keep going while its still bright," Yang said.
"Then let's go!" Biyomon said enthusiastically.
"She's got a point," Blake nodded. "We've still got a long way to go."
"Hopefully we at least manage to find ONE group of civil Digimon willing to hold a conversation instead of outright attacking us." Pyrrha said with a sigh.
"We did find Yokomon village, but...," Sora commented, hesitating on the next part, "... I'm starting to wonder if they're going to find a different village."
"I'm sure we will. There are lots of friendly Digimon on the island," Gabumon reassured.
"Make that hope we run into them when they AREN'T pissed off at something," Pierce commented.
"This is about the Monochromon isn't it?" Veemon said with a sweatdrop.
"What do you think?" Pierce told him dryly, earning a nervous chuckle from his partner.
"To be fair, we probably had similar thoughts... or at least I did," Jo admitted, feeling just a little ashamed of himself.
Despite that, they continued on. However, after a while of walking, Yang felt the urge to address a growing elephant in the room. "So...anyone else wondering about all the road signs in this forest?"
"Yes," Everyone said. "But we've been trying VERY hard not to think about it," Blake said with a sigh.
"How did you guys feel about those," Iori asked, wondering how his seniors reacted the first time.
Strangely enough all of them seemed to think very hard. "...I think we just thought it was weird," Taichi spoke for everyone, the others nodding in agreement.
"I think I wondered why there were signs at all in my head," Takeru admitted.
"...I'm guessing it goes without saying we all agree they don't actually mean or lead anywhere, right?" the blonde brawler couldn't help but ask.
"Pretty much, yeah."
"Yeah, their kind of all over the place on the island and are just… there." Biyomon said, gesturing with her arms all around her.
"Stuff like this does show up a lot, huh?" Tentomon mused.
"Though I wonder why we never had any of that in the plateau we lived in," Agumon couldn't help but say, causing all the gathered Digimon to frown in thought...but ultimately shook their heads unable to answer that.
"Now that they mention it... we really didn't have anything like those on the plateau we lived in," Agumon commented in thought.
Everyone acknowledged it, but didn't feel like commenting.
"Let's just… focus on moving ahead." Gyro said, rubbing his temples. He never considered himself someone who overly adhered to rules of logic, but the Digital World was just plain confusing some days.
"He said it," Daisuke commented, seeing as nothing about digital world made sense when he first got there.
"Hm?" Palmon blinked as they continued walking.
"Something wrong, Palmon?" Ruby asked.
"The soil seems more worn here. I think we're getting close to an actual trail," she reported.
"Ok, that's good. A trail means people walk here regularly, so that means we're close to a lived in area, meaning a place with civilized Digimon. I think we're catching a break today." Weiss said with a relieved sigh.
Six out of seven children snickered a little.
"Jo was still going on about how there has to be humans," Taichi said with an evil smirk.
This caused the Chosen of Reliability to slump in embarrassment. "Can we please forget that." The poor boy practically begged.
"Nope!" Mimi responded all too happily.
"Ummm..." Ken sounded out unsurely, "How long did Jo think there had to be humans?"
"Many days," Gomamon responded, which caused the second generation to stare at the senior in question with pitying looks.
"...I WAS IN DENIAL OKAY!" Jo finally snapped.
"Poor thing," Black said with a poor imitation of a caring smile, "So desperate to not acknowledge the fact that there was far more than the little box he called 'common sense'." The BlackGatomon snickered at the end of that, earning more laughs at Jo's expense.
Sadly even Novice found Black's teasing funny so he didn't punish her either. Besides, she was right.
"Aw man, I was hoping I'd get to do something fun today." Nora said with a pout, while Salamon looked down at her dryly from her spot on top of her head.
Ultimately deciding to ignore the overly energetic girl, the group continued down the path, Palmon guiding them till they found it. What they soon found was a small village...literally.
"Huh...its a village, but the huts are all so small," Jaune blinked at the sight.
"I wonder if that's a Yokomon village or something else," Biyomon wondered aloud.
"That probably means whoever lives here isn't very big," Gyro pointed out. "I mean, we HAVE seen some pretty small Digimon so...I guess it makes sense."
"And I know what the villagers are." Wormmon said as he pointed at a hut where one villager was poking his head out his entrance to look at them.
It was roughly the same size as Wormmon, and in the same shape of a caterpillar, but it had a yellow carapace with a red belly, blue claws as legs with a blue beak like mouth and a long dark blue stinger on its rear end, it had a pair of long antennae, and covering its body were lightning bolt shaped black marks.
"Oh, it's Kunemon." Salamon noted in a slight tone of surprise.
"Kunemon?" Miyako sounded out curiously.
Digimon Analyzer: Kunemon
Kunemon. Virus Type. A Child Level Larva Digimon. Kunemon are among the more docile Virus Digimon, and serve as a reminder to never judge a book by it's cover, or in this case, type. While unclear, it's believed the lighting patterns on its face act as it's ocular organs. Its special attack is Electric Thread, spitting a thread of silk charged with electricity, which can knock out most large digimon when wrapped up for long enough.
"...Why does it say to not judge something," Hawkmon asked out of curiosity.
"Many people consider Vaccine digimon good, Data neutral and Virus evil," Novice explained, before smiling, "But I personally believe that Vaccine and Virus are more like Order and Chaos. Neither inherently evil, but not inherently good either."
"That's true... Even though there are some really bad Virus digimon," Takeru said with a sad undertone.
"No argument there," Novice said, just happy that Takeru acknowledges this. "Fun fact, Takeru. I remember there being a fanfic where you had an extreme hatred of Virus type digimon."
"What!?" Takeru exclaimed. "I don't hate Virus digimon!" The Chosen of Hope wasn't happy about this revelation. He wasn't happy when Angemon died, but he can't hate an entire species because of one evil being.
"I know," Novice said soothingly, "But someone thought it would make sense for you to want to rid the digital world of all Virus digimon."
"...What kind of twisted mind do people have," Patamon asked in annoyance.
"Oh, that's not even the worst of it," Black said with a snicker, before experimentally trying to give one example, "Meow. Dammit!" And failed miserably.
"Let's just move on," Hikari said quickly, not wanting to hear anymore of this topic.
"Why are you surprised to see it?" Ren asked her.
"Because usually Kunemon make their homes in trees." Gomamon answered for her.
"Oh, that does make it odd for them to live in huts on the ground," Koshiro admitted.
"I'll see if I can convince them we're friendly." Wormmon said as he jumped off of Ren's shoulder.
"Let me help. I'm a bug too after all." Tentomon added as he followed after Wormmon.
"Yeah, a mechanical one," Veemon joked, but no one found it funny. "Oh, come on! That was funny."
"No it wasn't," Gatomon dead-panned.
With that said the group watched as the two Insectoid Digimon went into the village proper and started talking with the Kunemon who had been brave enough to peek outside.
And, after a minute or so of them talking, the Kunemon took a deep breath "Friendly people!" it shouted into the village.
"Always the quiet ones," Pierce blinked, the group wincing at the small creature's surprisingly loud voice.
True enough, despite it being toned down, the digimon with more keen sense of hearing held their ears in pain. Namely Gatomon and Black.
It's shout though had the actual intended effect, as more and more Kunemon started coming out of their homes while Wormmon and Tentomon went back to the group.
"They won't be having any issues with us resting here for the day, mostly because this is the first time their meeting humans." Wormmon explained as he reclaimed his spot on Ren's shoulder.
"Glad to hear that," Jaune sighed in relief.
"Guess we finally got a good experience outside of our partners, huh?" Ruby chuckled, something they all shared, glad to finally have an actually good encounter with other Digimon other than their partners.
"Our first experience of peaceful digimon were the Yokomon, but I understand where they're coming from," Mimi said with a smile.
Everyone was relieved when they were able to relax in the village, even if the many Kunemon stared at them curiously, and some brave ones came up and poked them curiously.
"The Yokomon weren't much different," Sora couldn't help commenting with a smile. Especially when they kept asking things like "What's a human?" "Are they nice?"
After lunch had passed though, it seemed that their luck had finally caught up to them…
"Hm?" Gyro looked up, looking around confused.
"Something that matter?" Pierce asked him.
"You don't hear that?" Gyro shot back.
"Hear what," Armadimon asked with a head tilt.
At that, Pierce rose an eyebrow, before simply trying to listen to what his brother had seemingly heard.
He could sort of hear… something, but he had no idea what it was supposed to be.
At this point, Gatomon's ears twitched as the sound was now being played. "Is that... electricity?" the white feline asked having some difficulty giving the sound a name.
"What the heck is that?" Yang said, starting to hear it too.
"It sounds like… static electricity, or something along those lines." Blake said, obviously making use of her hidden advantage.
Now the sound was slowly amplified with everyone else hearing it too.
"It must be just some of the Kunemon. They do have electric energy charged into their nets," Tentomon said.
"The only problem with that is that none of them are using their threads near us at the moment." Weiss pointed, stumping Tentomon.
"So uh...should we be worried about that?" Jaune asked.
"Considering our track record so far...yeah, I think so," Gyro deadpanned.
"I hate to say it, but I agree with them," Jo commented with a sigh. Considering their luck in the digital world.
"Oh don't worry, it's just Thundermon," a random Kunemon said. "He's kinda like our next door neighbour. He doesn't bother anyone." if the Kunemon could, he would be waving their concerns off by now.
"Wait! Thundermon," Iori sounded out in concern.
"Wait… isn't that like that the second time we've been told something like that?" Nora noticed, blinking in realisation.
It took a moment for everyone to first process that 1) Nora was right and 2) that electric sound was getting louder and louder.
In fact…
"Hit the deck!" Gyro shouted as everyone dived down as something incredibly fast whizzed past their heads. The blur crashed into and through a few huts before going through a few trees, causing several of them to topple over, leaving a small trail of destruction in its wake. And as if to further hit in the point…
"Big trouble!" came a shout from the direction the blur had come, as several other Kunemon came 'running'. "Thundermon...Thundermon's gone crazy!"
"So the Black Gear infected Thundermon," Gabumon commented as the junior members gave them a surprised look.
"Wait... You mean those things that made digimon go berserk," Daisuke asked, seeing as the seniors did tell them about their adventures, but they didn't go into details.
At that, the humans all just shared deadpan stares at each other, while the gathered Digimon had HUGE sweat drops on their heads. "Uh…" they were honestly at a loss for words.
"Right, no point in trying to explain Murphy being a jerk I guess, but this is weird though if he's supposed to be friendly." Gyro said as the humans (and one hidden faunus) all had to stay low.
"...Is it like the Dark Ring," Ken asked hesitantly.
"The Dark Ring grants control over digimon, Black Gears simply makes them go berserk," Takeru said simply, knowing that this is still a little touchy subject for Ken.
"It gets worse," one of the Kunemon said. "He's suddenly started rampaging through our game trails. Our village depends on those for our food supply."
"That's not good," Ren's eyes widened at the news.
"You mean, if Thundermon isn't stopped. The Kunemon will starve?" Biyomon said in concern.
"We gotta help them," Nora said suddenly, her voice losing the silliness it usually had.
That was a little surprising for everyone, especially Gatomon. The white feline didn't know if Nora was even capable of taking anything seriously.
"In that case, we need to find a way to stop Thundermon." Salamon said, a little part of her glad her partner was taking this seriously.
"You and I both," Gatomon said, though she lacked her usual annoyance. Which was caught by Hikari who smiled a little.
"But how do we find him?" Pyrrha pointed out. "He was moving almost as fast as Ruby with her semblance."
"Well, finding him is easy, seems like he wants to wreck the place. What we need to do is find a way to stop him." Ruby pointed out.
Everyone started looking around, hoping to get any sort of clue as to what might stop Thundermon, before Nora suddenly grinned as she darted towards the edge of the forest.
"What's she doing," Sora asked in concern.
"Ok what the… hell?" Pierce started, before his voice turned into a whisper as Nora actually lifted up one of the tree trunks that had fallen down, hefting it over her shoulder.
"How?" Was the collective question all the humans and Digimon had at the impossible strength.
""Suddenly, the randomness has become worth it." Salamon said with a grin.
Gatomon almost opened her mouth to say something, but managed to clamp her maw shut before whatever she almost said escaped her.
Nora gave the tree a few test swings, almost like a baseball bat, pursing her lips in thought "Hey, can someone electrocute me a bit?"
That gave everyone pause as they looked at her, completely thrown for a loop.
Ren merely sighed, before turning to Tentomon "Just zap her a bit, her semblance will absorb it and make her stronger."
"What!?" Came out of everyone.
Before Hikari had a look of realization about something Novice once said, "Ummm... the person who discovered their semblance when they were struck by lightning... Was it...?"
"Yes, it was Nora," Novice replied with a smile.
"...How much electricity can she absorb," Koshiro asked, not knowing that he would regret the answer.
"The truth is, no one knows if she has a limit," Novice said, putting emphasis on the right word.
Which gave the Children and even their digimon some very scary thoughts.
Only Gatomon wasn't sure if she should be impressed at the power Nora has, or worried for the same reason.
"Um… alright then." Tentomon said, still confused, but complying as his wings started buzzing and he gathered a charge between the two halves of his shell "Petit Thunder!"
Nora grinned as the attack hit her, her semblance activating as the electricity arced off her body and she started swinging the tree trunk much faster.
"I'm gonna knock you out of the park." Nora called into the area with a wild grin. "So come on Thundermon, show me what ya got!"
"Is Thundermon really going to just attack head on?" Gatomon wondered, wondering if the small digimon was that stupid.
Against all odds….that actually worked, as the sound of static could be heard, and a familiar blur soon came back. Thundermon came at her with all the intent of a seeker missile...only to be met with a whole lot of wood in his face, before he was sent flying back, hitting a rock, finally revealing to them what he looked like.
In all honesty, the group expected something more intimidating, for all he was, was just a black ball with a yellow thunderbolt sticking out the top of his head, a pair of short arms and legs.
Digimon Analyzer: Thundermon
Thundermon. Data Type. An Adult Level Mutant Digimon. Known as the Digimon Dynamo, it's a part of the Mamemon family of Digimon. His body is like a small magnet, constantly clad in electricity generated by his high speed. His special attack is Thunder Ball, discharging several spheres of electricity at it's targets.
"Apparently he did," Hikari replied with a small giggle. She knew she shouldn't find it funny, but it was impossible.
Thundermon groaned as he pried himself from the stone, letting out a roar that was probably supposed to be intimidating. However, considering his size…
The humans (and one hidden faunus) couldn't take it anymore...and promptly started laughing. They knew they shouldn't, they knew that they should have been taking this more seriously, but after all the life and death situations they'd been through at the hands of massive Digimon, seeing such a TINY Digimon being their opponent...the novelty was too much.
Honestly, the Children started roaring after the tiny roar. With Hikari barely able to read through her own.
Even Iori found the whole thing funny, and he was at the receiving end of the devastation Thundermon caused.
Apparently, Thundermon took offense to that as he started rushing again…
Only for Nora to just bat him away with the tree again.
More laughters erupted from the Children and now their digimon.
"This is almost embarrassing," Yang snickered as they saw the Digimon go flying like a baseball again.
"But it IS pretty funny," Biyomon chuckled.
"Yes it is!" Biyomon agreed with her other as she doubled over in laughter.
"Shouldn't we figure out why Thundermon is going crazy?" Ruby asked.
"Sure we will," Gyro said...right as Nora knocked Thundermon back again. "Right after this stops being funny."
Koshiro wanted to tell the Remnantians to get their priorities straight, but he was laughing too hard himself to even try.
"Is it wrong that this is actually pretty fun to watch?" Patamon couldn't help but ask as he snickered at the sight of Thundermon being launched away.
"...maybe a little," Agumon chuckled.
"But it's still funny," Agumon chuckled.
"And here's one for the road!" Nora shouted as she gave one last mighty swing, and Thundermon was sent soaring beyond the trees.
They all waited for a moment for Thundermon to rush back again, that moment stretching on into seconds, and then a full minute.
It was at that minute that Ren deadpanned "We lost him."
Sadly that didn't stop the Children or their digimon from laughing. Except now they were laughing at their expense.
Although, Gatomon managed to calm down first. "I'm starting to like her," the white feline said, before clamping her paws over her mouth. But the damage was done.
"Aww, is the big bad kitty beginning to soften up," Patamon asked with a small snicker.
"Watch it," Gatomon said with a threatening tone.
"Oh, come now. You're allowed to like someone other than your partner," Black said from her spot on Novice's lap. She may be mad at him for getting that patch, but it's not like his lap decided it.
"Gatomon," Hikari then asked sounding a little hurt, "Do you like Nora more than me now?"
"H-Hikari... It's not like that," Gatomon said frantically.
But then the Chosen of Light giggled, "I'm sorry, I couldn't resist."
"Not funny," Gatomon grumbled, seriously believing Hikari was offended.
"Need some catnip to calm her," Novice said jokingly, before adopting a thoughtful look. "On second thought, forget what I said," the Overseer then corrected, not wanting to know how Gatomon might react. He already had trauma from when it affected Black, thank you very much.
"Ah...we...probably shouldn't have been enjoying that ball game too much, huh?" Pierce sweatdropped.
That pun was actually good, seeing as it earned varying levels of laughter.
Gyro gave him a look at that "Now really isn't the time for your stupid puns."
"I don't think it was stupid," Mimi commented, earning various signs of agreement.
"Wasn't even trying to this time," Pierce shot back.
"The best jokes are made when you're not trying," Novice said sagely.
"Okay you two, enough of that," Pyrrha said, breaking up the argument. "We need to find Thundermon first."
"She's right, we'd better hurry and find him before he causes more trouble," Veemon nodded, to which the two brothers did the same and the group immediately set their sights on the direction Nora had launched Thundermon.
Unfortunately for the group, this unsurprisingly, proved a bit harder than expected. "How far DID you launch him?" Weiss couldn't help but ask in annoyance as they trudged through what they assumed to be one of the Village's game trails considering the number of berry bushes and and various other fruit they noticed along the way.
While some of the digimon stared at the various foodstuffs with a dreamy look, the Children were seriously wondering now how far Nora managed to launch the small digimon.
"Hey... do you have any of those berries or fruits," Agumon asked Novice who rolled his eyes before snapping his fingers, and there were fruit and berry bowls in front of each digimon.
"Thanks," Agumon thanked before digging in as others also dug in with varying levels of enthusiasm
"Uh….whoops?" Nora said sheepishly.
Weiss shook her head in annoyance, before turning to the Digimon who were helping with the search. "Any luck with finding him?"
"Not really. He's pretty small, and he was sent flying, so there's really not much to track," Tentomon shook his head.
"So how are they going to find Thundermon," Hawkmon asked, before plucking particularly juicy berries into his beak.
"Hey, hold on… I think I got something." Pierce said, looking at his digivice.
"Do those other radars track the Black Gears," Koshiro then asked aloud.
"What is it?" Jaune asked, grabbing for his own just in case.
"Remember that weird black thing in the sky earlier? It's in range of the Digivices again." Pierce pointed out.
"Looks that way," Tentomon replied a little late.
The others checked and, sure enough, the black dot was on their radar again, coincidentally, it seemed to line up with the area that Thundermon was knocked into.
"Whatever it is, looks like it may have latched onto Thundermon." Gyro noted.
"Do you think maybe it's the reason he's acting different from how the Kunemon describe him?" Ruby wondered.
"It makes sense, according to them last night he was perfectly fine, and we saw that black thing heading roughly towards the area he makes his home." Palmon agreed with the theory.
"So...what? Did we see some kind of parasite or maybe even a virus that causes Digimon to go berserk or something?" Yang frowned.
"That's pretty accurate," Koshiro said with a smile
"That...might be pretty accurate actually," Blake mused.
"Another echo, huh," Gatomon snickered. Unfortunately, it seemed like the joke had run it's course... For now.
"But also really scary," Wormmon shivered. "If there are more of these things, then Digimon all over the island could go berserk at any time."
"Not all over, just where we always were," Mimi said with a sigh. Then again, Devimon was actively trying to kill them, so it did make sense for him to send Black Gears to digimon who they would pass by.
"Then we'd better try and see what we can do about this before things get worse," Ren said.
"Right," everyone nodded in agreement. Using the radar as a guide, they were able to home in...and found a cliffside...with a small hole in the nearby rocks and the sound of something drilling.
"...wow, either he's trying to get into the rocks, or you REALLY hit him hard," Gomamon blinked at the sight.
"...I'm not sure if I should be worried or impressed by the latter," Gatomon commented.
"Well, let's see if we can get him out AND figure out what's wrong," Ren said, before turning to Wormmon. "Can you make your nets thicker and stronger than normal?" he asked, earning a nod from his partner. "Alright, we'll need those to try and catch him."
"Okay everyone, nice and easy now unless someone wants to lose a bodypart," Gyro gulped a little as they slowly approached the hole, Wormmon quickly spinning an extra strong net. Getting into position, they were ready to catch the berserk mon when he got out of the hole he was in, and evident by how the sound of spinning and electricity was getting louder, he was about to do very soon.
"...Why do I get the feeling that that isn't going to end well," Ken wondered aloud.
A moment later, he burst out, getting caught in the net, and everyone was about to cheer, before he continued forward, and everyone was holding on started getting dragged around by him.
"That's why," Wormmon pointed out the obvious.
The hunters all had a collective thought as they got dragged on the ground.
'Thanks god for aura.'
Although the Digimon… let's just say it was painful, because that was a rather cacophonous series of 'Ow's.
The Children knew they shouldn't laugh about this, but they couldn't help it. The TV showed a rather comical sight of the Remnantians and their digimon getting dragged around.
The digimon on the other hand winced at their others getting full of cuts, bruises and a few bumps.
At the very least, the plan was having some sort of effect on him, as with everyone dragging behind him it stopped him from going too quickly or getting up high, and with all the twisting he was doing he was getting tangled up in the net more and more. Unfortunately, at the last minute, he hiked upwards, and the sudden jerk caused the Digimon to let go thanks to the leftover effects from all the dragging. The effects were soon known, as Thundermon started picking up some speed thanks to the lighter load, and was soon pulling them all over the place.
"Th-that's not good," Daisuke managed to comment through his laughter.
"Okay, this wasn't such a great plan!" Gyro admitted as they were now screaming through a small flight.
"Ya think?!" Everyone else shouted, before a shout happened...and Ruby let go from a sudden turn, the younger girl falling...and landing on top of Palmon who had moved to catch her.
At this point Hikari had to pause in reading, because she started to let out a sound that somehow sounded between laughing and wincing.
"I'm so sorry," Hikari apologized to no one in particular, not that any of the humans could blame her.
"Sorry Palmon!" Ruby said, quickly getting off.
"...shit…" was all Gyro could say when he realized where this was going. The teens were soon screaming again when Thundermon renewed his attempts to shake them off, and one by one they were forced to let go, all of them thankfully landing safely thanks to their auras, but each time one let go, Thundermon became faster and faster, till finally only Nora was still holding on, the orange head actually biting onto the net to help keep her grip.
"At this point I would think that she should let go," Gomamon commented.
"And risk getting flung into something sharp," Jo retorted with a small frown.
"Nora!" Salamon shouted in alarm seeing her partner in a rather precarious position.
Eventually it seemed Thundermon had gotten fed up with the girl's grip, and soon flew straight to the cliffside. Seeing the incoming rocks, Nora's eyes widened, and she immediately let go, falling through some trees, but ultimately landing on the ground, more or less okay, since her aura finally broke. "I'm okay!" she said quickly. Too bad at that moment, Thundermon rammed into the cliff, causing a strong tremor, which caused several rocks to fall...headed right for the girl.
At this point, no one was even remotely amused, seeing as this situation became serious once again.
"LOOK OUT!" Salamon shouted running towards her partner to try and save her.
(Play Brave Heart)
At that moment, Nora's Digivice shined bright, sending the signal to the sky, and once more the light emerged releasing the waterfall of data.
"Salamon, Evolution!" Salamon started as the data flowed into her before she transformed. "Gatomon!" She hadn't changed much in terms of height, being just a half foot taller as she stood on her hind legs, but what had changed however was her species, going from a dog to a cat with a white coat of fur, her ears tipped with strands of purple fur, while her tail was very long and striped with purple. Hanging around said tail was a Holy Ring, a smaller one than had been around her neck in her previous form, but still something that showed how strong she was nonetheless. As for her forepaws, there were clad in a pair of yellow cat gloves with red stripes, and sporting large claws on their tips.
"I guess it's my turn now," Gatomon commented with a smile.
A white blur zipped between Nora and the incoming boulders, before those were promptly sliced apart, falling harmlessly around the girl, Gatomon landing defensively between Nora and where Thundermon was.
"Salamon, you evolved!" Nora said, her eyes widening a little in wonder.
Digimon Analyzer: Gatomon
Gatomon. Vaccine Type. An Adult Level Holy Beast Digimon. Although small, Gatomon is the true definition of not judging a book by it's cover, as her small body holds a lot of power, most of which is concentrated to her legs, making her not only an excellent jumper, but also an extremely fast Digimon. The Holy Ring on her tail serves as the source of most of her power. Her special attack is Neko Punch, striking the opponent at high speeds with her sharp claws.
"We had to learn the not judging a book by it's cover the hard way," Jo commented, earning curious looks from the junior members.
"...When Gatomon was with Myotismon, she made us look like idiots," Tentomon added in embarrassment.
"Not my fault you guys were so slow," Gatomon retorted in annoyance, despite still feeling a little bad about it now.
"Hey, it's fine now," Agumon said, being surprisingly smart about Gatomon's feelings.
"...Thanks," Gatomon mumbled almost inaudibly. The "almost" being Hikari who smiled at Gatomon saying that.
"Its Gatomon in this form, Nora," Gatomon chuckled lightly, before turning and glaring at Thundermon who'd just broken free of the rocks again. "Enough games, this ends now," she said.
Thundermon seemed to think the same, before he started zipping around the two, looking for an angle to attack...or he WOULD have if Gatomon didn't suddenly appear in front of him and promptly batted him away with a strike from the Holy Ring on her tail, causing Thundermon to dig a small trench on the nearby ground.
"Damn! She's fast!" Yang whistled at the sight.
"I've heard Gatomon are among the fastests Adult level Digimon, but this is something else," Biyomon said in agreement.
"Yeah," Biyomon commented, "She is."
Gatomon couldn't help smiling with slight smugness at hearing that.
"Don't forget," Black piped up, "The only difference between me and your Gatomon is our color. Meaning that I can do anything she can."
Novice rolled his eyes at Black having to point that out.
Back at the fight, Thundermon charged forward again, but Gatomon met his attacks blow for blow, and several times, landed her own strikes with punches and kicks. Eventually Thundermon got fed up of fighting the feline, and charged up his special attack, before throwing it at Gatomon, who smirked at the sight. "This one's for you, Nora," she chuckled before spinning in mid-air...and knocking the attack right back with her Holy Ring, causing Thundermon to shout in pain as his internal electricity was overloaded. Taking her chance, Gatomon jumped forward, fist reared back. "Neko Punch!" she called out as she landed a haymaker right in Thundermon's face, the impact launching the small mon back and through several trees, before finally slamming into a nearby boulder where he slowly slid down, and fell flat on his face out cold. When they all went to check, they arrived just in time to see something small emerge from his back, before flying into the sky and shattering to pieces, the signal on their radars going dead when it did.
(Song end)
The Children and their digimon did give various cheers at the good fight, but it was a little too fast for them to actually comment.
With the fight over, Gatomon glowed and reverted to Salamon, while Gyro was staring at the sky a little.
"It's a little shame that you don't do that," Taichi commented on their Gatomon always staying in her adult form.
"This is my normal form, sue me," Gatomon retorted.
"Was that… a black gear of some sorts?" Gyro mused as he looked at where the gear at burst apart.
A groan alerted them all to Thundermon, slowly getting back up as he rubbed his cranium "Owww, what the heck hit me?" he whined at the pain he was still reeling from, before opening his eyes and looking at everyone in confusion "Uh… who are you guys?"
"That brings back memories," Gomamon commented, "Every time we broke a Black Gear, the digimon it was controlling asked us what was going on."
Minutes later, everyone had returned to the Kunemon village, where Thundermon explained what had happened this morning.
"I was just minding my own business, zipping around the trees like I usually do, then all of a sudden, this weird black gear thingy comes out of nowhere! I dodged it of course because, hey, I'm faster than it was, and I was able to keep on doing that for a good while, but then I suddenly felt something hit me in the back and the next thing I know, I'm waking up with a massive headache." Thundermon recounted, sitting on top of one of the huts so he was eye level with the hunters.
"So, it made you go berserk then? That's troubling, since there's likely more of those out there." Weiss said with a frown.
"...We didn't consider that when we saw one for the first time," Koshiro commented.
"Betcha we're going to have to deal with those more often now." Gyro said with a groan.
"Even I think that would be exhausting, and I ALWAYS have energy to spare." Nora said, having spent a lot of energy earlier, thus why she was remaining so still.
"Nora's not joking," Novice commented, "The only time she stays... relatively still is when she's sleeping. And even then I wouldn't be surprised if she tossed and turned."
As the sun shone high in the sky, the Kunemon thanked the group, giving them a few bag fulls of supplies for saving both their village and Thundermon.
"Don't be a stranger if you come around these parts again," Thundermon said. "And if you ever need a hand, I'm your mon. I owe you guys one."
"That's what just about every digimon we saved on File Island said," Taichi commented with a smile.
"We were happy to help Thundermon, hope we see you again soon." Pierce answered, the others nodding in agreement.
The little Digimon grinned at that, before floating off the ground "Well, see you guys some other time then!" he said, before turning to one of the trails "Beep beep!" and shooting off.
That beeping earned some laughs out of Children.
Gyro and Pierce both adopted deadpan looks as they saw him rocket off.
'Freaking Road Runner expy.' they thought in unison, as the group continued onwards, the heat of the sun blaring down at them. Despite it all, if one looked closely, Nora could be seen with Salamon sitting on her head, enthusiastically talking about the fight before, the little Digimon smiling the whole way.
The book shut itself once again, as the Children had a curious look about something.
"What's Road Runner," Iori was the first to ask.
Novice snapped his finger and on the screen appeared what looked like a cartoonish large purple bird with long legs. "Beep! Beep!" The bird sounded out before running off with impressive speed. "That's the Road Runner." Novice said, having fond memories of that show.
"I'm seriously a little jealous about the Remnantians getting some extra supplies," Jo commented with a sigh, "We didn't get anything like that."
"But we at least got to eat at Yokomon village," Takeru said, remembering that time fondly.
"Takeru was such a cute little kid at the time," Black commented dreamily. Sadly, after the black feline flirted twice with two of the boys and knowing what Black evolves into, they did NOT take it well.
Which earned the her a smack on the head from Viisauden Keppi(Stick of Wisdom). "How many times do I need to smack sense into you," Novice asked with a tired look.
"That's not how it works," Black complained, rubbing her abused head.
"How do you even know how Takeru was," Mimi asked in suspicion.
Novice decided to answer for Black, "Black was curious about the show you guys starred in, so I showed it to her." A decision he regretted when the baths scene came up. That was when Novice learned that the black digimon doesn't make a difference between children and adults.
"Meow... Dammit!" Black exclaimed as she once again glared at her human.
"Oh, stop whining, you had it coming," Novice retorted as he glared back at the cat.
Black: ...I hate you.
Me: No you don't. *smirks evilly*
Black *mumble, grumble* So, did you put that sign up or what?
Me: Yup. "No one tells me what I'm supposed to do with this show, except Swift.". I probably should've set that up before hand. That being said, I'll take suggestions so long as they're within reason.